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Best drugstore in the movies? Now with an instance of what I love about the Internets.

The sense of wonder

Always wonder:

The unique and original relation to being that Plato calls “theoria” can only be realized in its pure state through the sense of wonder, in that purely receptive attitude to reality, undisturbed and unsullied by the interjection of the will. “Theoria” is only possible in so far as man is not blind to the wonderful fact that things are. For our sense of wonder, in the philosophical meaning of the word, is not aroused by enormous, sensational things — though that is what a dulled sensibility requires to provoke it to a sort of ersatz experience of wonder. A man who needs the unusual to make him “wonder” shows that he has lost the capacity to find the true answer to the wonder of being. The itch for sensation, even though disguised in the mask of Bohème, is a sure indication of a bourgeois mind and a deadened sense of wonder.

To perceive all that is unusual and exceptional, all that is wonderful, in the midst of the ordinary things of everyday life, is the beginning of philosophy.

Joseph Pieper, “The Philospophical Act,” in Leisure: The Basis of Culture, trans. Alexander Dru (New York: Pantheon, 1952).

As an undergrad, I heard Pieper’s book recommended many times. Now that I’ve gotten around to reading it, I feel far removed from any world in which its assumptions were common currency. But I did come away with this passage.

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Powders, pencils, mountains, cigars (William Carlos Williams and Wallace Shawn)

[Theoria, θεωρία: “a looking at, viewing, beholding, observing”; “of the mind, contemplation, reflection” (A Lexicon: Abridged from Liddell and Scott's “Greek-English Lexicon”).]

History, rewritten

“The on-going protests in the U.S. lead to the end of the war and Richard Nixon securing the presidency”: from my cable provider’s description of “Fall,” the final episode of the CNN documentary series 1968.

Memorial Day 1918

[“Deck Graves Early Lest Foe Interfere: Our Troops in France Hold Services at Dawn to Avoid German Shells. Mass at the Madeleine. Cardinal Archbishop of Paris Praises Wilson in Address to Knights of Columbus. Cardinal Conducts Paris Services. Decorate Sailors’ Graves in Britain. Honors for Lusitania Dead.” The New York Times, May 31, 1918.]

“Baby TripAdvisor”

“In the morning, we visited the table room. There were many, many tables in the table room. A button lady gave me my table and my throne too”: Rosemary Counter, “Baby TripAdvisor” (The New York Times).

NPR, sheesh

[An NPR correspondent speaking.]

“When him and Kim Jong-un . . . .”

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All OCA sheesh posts (Pinboard)

Bushmiller Mutts

[Mutts, May 26, 2018.]

Looks like everyone is reading How to Read “Nancy.”

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All OCA Nancy posts (Pinboard)

Henry booths

[Henry, May 26, 2018.]

Readers of a certain age won’t need the final panels of today’s Henry to understand what’s going on: Henrietta and Henry are — of course — talking to each other. I remember the good clean fun of taking over a bank of Garden State Plaza phone booths with friends and making calls back and forth. Hilarity on the cheap.

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All OCA Henry posts (Pinboard)

From the Saturday Stumper

My favorite clue from today’s Newsday Saturday Stumper: 60-Down, four letters: “Sunset intersector.” A HAND shielding the eyes? The horizon LINE? No. And no spoilers; the answer is in the comments.

Today’s puzzle is by “Anna Stiga,” or “Stan again.” Newsday ’s crossword editor Stan Newman uses that pen name for easier Saturday puzzles of his making.

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